Recent Posts

• Mother's Day Out at River Place Cafe

• Stewardship--The Solution for What Ails Ye

• Historical Preservation Before and After Snapshots

• Barn Raising Along the Clinch

• Clinch River Conservation Center & Retreat Opening & Earth Day Event

• The Impact of Coal on the Clinch

• Spicy, Southern-Style Breaded & Baked Wild Fowl Recipe

• Community Heroes Create Conservation Easements

• Movies, Internet, and Video Games Decreasing Participation in Outdoor Recreation

• Sideshow Jobs for the “Inbred-Looking”

• River Place Featured on Tennessee's Wild Side

• Forget to stop for roses?

• Raise your Mountain Dews High

Links

• The Appalachian Quilt Trail
• The Melungeons
• Clinch Powell RC&D

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Mother's Day Out at River Place Cafe

Bring Mom to River Place Cafe for extra "Special" treatment!

*Buy one Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner Special and Mom's Special is free.

Café hours: 6:30am to 7:30pm

Toll free number: 877-483-7211

Phone/fax: 423-733-4400

Stewardship--The Solution for What Ails Ye

How did we get to this beautiful place, this River Place, and this wonderful moment in time when it all comes together? You know the old saying, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” The River Place started out by someone identifying a problem and a lack of an adequate solution. Then joining with others, many people put their heads together and came up with really good solution. They knew it was a really good idea. To be really good, they realized it must endure change and adapt with the times. It must be “sustainable”. It must be a big enough plan to help and involve the local community, young and old, from all walks of life, as well as conserve natural resources. Because people who are sick or can’t put food on their tables and are struggling to survive themselves, can’t be troubled with the plight of other species. They realized that a plan that involves the cooperative effort of a community builds relationships, not just with each other but with the earth. The community involved could be localized to the area. Or it could be a wider community of conscientious individuals throughout the world. In the case of River Place on the Clinch, it involves both.

This ball was set in motion over a decade ago, partly prompted by a couple of toxic spills that killed off many of the indigenous species of the Clinch River, threatening what was known world-wide to be one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, the waters of the Clinch Valley. Cleanup was a cooperative effort between government and private conservationists. Even farther back, long before the spills raised red flags about the threatened and endangered aquatic species, the freshwater mussel shell button industry put a hurt on the biodiversity mussels here in Tennessee as some species were over-harvested to the point of extinction. Plastic defeated the shell button industry along the Clinch River and possibly saved many of the remaining species of mussels from extinction. Conservation efforts have been ongoing and some species have been helped and reintroduced along the Clinch River. (The work is far from over.)

And of course, there was concern for the poverty and suffering ecology of rural Appalachia as far back as Roosevelt and the New Deal. Droughts, acid rain, erosion, and poor farming techniques had taken its toll on the people and terrain.

The Tennessee Valley Authority formed May 18, 1933 to bring power to southern Appalachia, but also to assist farmers. Dam constructions began. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of men formed to quickly address problems of erosion, silt, and water and soil quality. The first CCC camp was assigned to Tennessee Valley to concentrate on erosion control and tree planting on Oct 17,1933, 75 years ago this year. The CCC continued until 1942.

Today’s concerned private citizens, in cooperation with non-profits like the Clinch Powell RC&D and The Nature Conservancy, and state and federal agencies, are crucial to the health and future of southern Appalachia. Volunteer youth groups like AmeriCorps, 4-H, Boy Scouts, and others are tomorrow’s conservationists. If they learn to love the land, local species, and local communities here and care for them as we do.

Many people learn best by first-hand experience. What better way to educate our selves than to continue to ask the hard questions and find good solutions? What better way to educate a new generation than to prompt them to propose their own solutions and then listen to their ideas and help them bring them to reality? Genius never occurred in a vacuum. Our future is in their hands and better those hands are used to being dirty from doing good work. We can’t guarantee a CCC will sweep in tomorrow and fix all our region’s problems. We can act as good parents, good teachers, good neighbors and custodians of the earth and plan to tend to it ourselves. Community stewardship is a sustainable solution for a variety of social and ecological ailments.

The Clinch River Conservation Center and River Place on the Clinch provide opportunities to get involved in rural conservation and even host your own Conservation Camp in rural Appalachia and at the Kyles Ford Preserve. Contact us for help planning your event.

Historical Preservation Before and After Snapshots

During the 1930s when TVA photographed the region prior to the construction of dams, it was recorded that many of the rural Appalachian homesteads throughout the region still used farming and homesteading techniques such as spinning wheels, looms, milk churns, washtubs, etc. The photos were used by some well-intentioned or callous outsiders to depict Appalachian folk as "left behind" as the rest of the country benefited from luxuries such as electric washers, refrigerators, telephones, heat, and lighting. This depiction of hillfolk as backwards and deprived embarrassed many rural folks into abandoning centuries-old skills and crafts, lifestyles, and values that had passed on for generations. Many in the concerned river areas were evacuated due to the dams flooding entire towns and valleys. Some moved on to the cities and never returned to Appalachia. Yet those that stayed are oftimes a stubborn breed and some still look for an economically viable way to continue the old traditions. Many of the old ways resonate in manner and attitudes, in the music, at the local churches, and in chance conversations at the corner store. Self-sufficiency and independence are valued throughout the region.

A home may go through many style revisions over the course of a century. These are before and after photos of the restoration of the rental cottage to vintage Appalachian style circa 1800s. No spinning wheels or looms present, but you're welcome to bring your own.

Barn Raising Along the Clinch

It’s not a barn exactly, that’s been raised here in Kyles Ford. But the spirit of the gathering at the opening of the Clinch River Conservation Center on Earth Day was the probably much like a good old-fashioned barn raising. When good people come together and join with a handful of organizations (led by Clinch-Powell RC&D), good things can happen and the enthusiasm is contagious. People want to join in and be involved. They want to make a contribution and they want to help get things done.

Much has been accomplished by the many people already involved in the effort but there’s much still left to do. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved. Contact manager Kim Belcher at River Place or the Clinch-Powell RC&D to find out about exciting “Volun-tourism” opportunities coming up.

The reward? As many rural folks here will surely agree, tilling the earth, an afternoon of joyous labor, joining in elbow to elbow and making a contribution where it’s sorely needed…these meaningful and unforgettable experiences may be their own reward. Other than that, the earth thanks you. The mussels, fish, and other rare and endangered species thank you. We sincerely thank you.